I kinda had a similar issue. I wanted my DD to be able to understand which grandparent we were talking about....so we decided that my DH's dad would be papaw and my dad would be grandpa and my mom would be grandma...we then have the greats....great grandma W. and great grandma E. and great grandpa E. ....we tried to come up with names for each...but it all was a waste of time! LOL

My DD is now 4 years old and she calls them ALL either grandma or papaw!!! LOL Occasionally she'll ask us which one were talking about and then we just say which one and she says "oh, ok"....like it's no biggy.

Right now, we have Papa, and Papaw although they both pretty much sound like Papa. I figure eventually it will be like my nephews and my Dad will switch from Papa to Grandpa and my FIL will stay Papaw so it should be easier to keep them straight. We are going to have more of an issue with Grandma since both are Grandma right now.

When we were kids, we called our GP, Grandma and Grandpa when talking to them, but referred to them as Grandma Shirley or Grandpa Marty etc. It helped keep straight who we were talking about.

Hmm.. we'll my kids only interact w/my DH dad so he's papa. But for grandma my son call one "Grandma Burke" and the other "Grandma Swaby" when refering to them, when he's with them they are just grandma.

It worked for DD to distinguish between Mamaw and Grams- I'm worse about distinguishing between the two because I'm so used to just saying Grandma. But I kind of want my Dad to be Grandpa and the others to have the different names.

When I was little- I had 2 grandmas and 2 grandpas- but when we we were told we were going to grandma's house, that meant one place and when we were going to grandpa's house- that was the other place. it was like the dominant figure's house. KWIM?

Thanks for the Ideas though.

I think my dad will be Grandpa, FIL will be Papaw (to my MIL as Mamaw/Grandma) and my Stepdad as Pop or Poppy (to my mother as Grams).

I let my parents and DH's parents choose what they wanted to be called. My mom & dad are Grandma & Grandpa. My DH's mom & dad are Bubbie & Saba(Hebrew). My DS is only 13 months so I'm sure that he will call them what ever he wants. Like now he calls my dad Pa and he has some sound like mama for my mom but it's different from what he calls me. Growing up I had a Pop-pop & Nana, and a Poppie & Gramma